WAKWAK, 2000

Important Aboriginal Works of Art
Melbourne
25 May 2016
80

JIMMY NJIMINJUMA

(1945 – 2004)
WAKWAK, 2000

natural earth pigments and synthetic binder on eucalyptus bark

101.0 x 40.0 cm

bears inscription on Maningrida Arts and Culture label verso: artist’s name, title, language group, location and cat. 16542000BP

Estimate: 
$2,000 – 3,000
Sold for $976 (inc. BP) in Auction 43 - 25 May 2016, Melbourne
Provenance

Maningrida Arts and Culture, Northern Territory (labels attached verso)
Aboriginal and Pacific Art, Sydney
Milton and Alma Roxanas, Sydney
Bonhams, The Collection of Milton and Alma Roxanas, Sydney, 11 May 2014, lot 121 (label attached verso)
The McKay Superannuation Fund Art Collection, Brisbane

Catalogue text

This work is accompanied by a certificate from Maningrida Arts and Culture which states: ‘In this painting Njiminjuma has depicted a sacred site at Kurrurldul, his outstation south of Maningrida. The Rarrk, or abstract cross hatching, on this work represents the design for the crow totem ancestor called Djimarr. Today this being exists in the form of a rock which is permanently submerged at the bottom of Kurrurldul Creek. The imagery represents the crow in three different domains. Most simply it is the black crow wak and the ancestral form of this bird called djimarr. At the same time, the image represents the rock mentioned above, which is the final transmutation of the dreaming ancestor djimarr. Finally, the pattern used here is also the crow design used in the sacred Mardayin ceremony which is a large regional patrimoiety ceremony now rarely conducted in central and eastern Arnhem Land.’